Alfred University Visiting Assistant Professor of Foundations Megan Scheffer exhibits art in UR’s Frontispace Gallery

ROCHESTER, NY – An art exhibition by Megan Scheffer, Visiting Assistant Professor in Foundations in Alfred University’s School of Art and Design is on display at Frontispace Gallery, in the University of Rochester’s Art and Music Library through Nov. 8.

Titled “in the absence of treatment,” the exhibition includes drawings, sculptures, and photographs that investigate and question definitions of mental health. Works in the exhibition visually abstract mental illness, asylums, and the clinical and subjective language within the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. “In the absence of treatment” also looks at mental illness through the lens of absence, trauma, loss, and the desire to catalogue, diagnose, and fill in the gaps.

Scheffer is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in Rochester, NY. She earned her BA in Studio Art and Psychology from Beloit College in 2010 and an MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2015. She attended the Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency and received the Fellowship Award for the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Artist Residency.

Her work has received several awards including Best in Show and the People's Choice Award from the State of the Art Gallery (Ithaca, NY), Director’s Choice Award from Main Street Arts (Clifton Springs, NY), and the Edge Award from the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (Rochester, NY). Her work has recently been exhibited at RedLine Contemporary Art Center (Denver, CO), Katherine E Nash Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), Big Orbit Gallery (Buffalo, NY), Embark Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Exhibit A Gallery (Corning, NY), Mercer Gallery (Rochester, NY), and the Arnot Art Museum (Elmira, NY).